Brooching the Subject

 

QUESTION: While antiquing on a recent weekend, I came across a shop with a display case full of antique brooches. And while I’ve seen old brooches before, I never saw this many together. That got me to wonder how the brooch came to be. What can you tell me about the origin and history of the brooch?

ANSWER: Brooches have a long history dating back to the Bronze Age, originally serving as  fasteners for clothing before evolving into decorative jewelry. Over the centuries, they have been made from various materials and have reflected changing fashions and social status. Brooches became especially popular during Victorian times.

Brooches have  usually been made of silver or gold, decorated with enamel or with gemstones and may have been solely ornamental or serve as a clothes fastener. As fashions in brooches changed quickly, they became historical indicators.  

Before the Middle Ages, brooches were called fibula. With a lack of buttons, they were necessary as clothes fasteners, but also acted as markers of social status for both men and women. During the Iron Age in Europe, metalworking technology advanced dramatically, including casting, metal bar-twisting and wire making. As early as 400 BCE,  Celtic craftsmen in Europe created fibulae decorated in red enamel and coral inlay.

Brooches first appeared in Britain in 600 BCE, lasting until 150 BCE. The most common brooch forms during this time were the bow, the plate, and the penannular brooch. Most of these were cast in one piece, with most from copper alloy or iron. The brooches of this era show Roman jewelry techniques, including repoussé, filigree, granulation, enameling, openwork and inlay. Color was the primary feature of brooches of this period. The precious stone most often used was the almandine, a burgundy variety of garnet, found in Europe and India. Designers would cover the entire surface of an object with the tiny geometric shapes of precious stones or enamel which artisans then polished flat until they were flush with the cloisonné settings, giving the appearance of a tiny stained glass window.

Artisans used many variations in their brooch designs---geometric decoration, intricate patterns, abstract designs from nature, bird motifs and running scrolls. Intertwined beasts were often a signature feature of these intricately decorated brooches. Bow shaped, S-shaped, radiate-headed and decorated disc brooches were the most common styles from the 5th through the 7th centuries. 

Circular brooches first appeared in England in the middle of the 5th century. And by the end of the 6th century, the circular form had become the preferred brooch shape.

Celtic brooches represent a tradition of elaborately decorated penannular and pseudo-penannular types developed in early medieval Ireland and Scotland. However, certain characteristics of Celtic jewelry, such as inlaid millefiori glass and curvilinear styles, have more in common with ancient brooches than contemporary Anglo-Saxon jewelry. 

Scandinavian brooches, generally made of silver and copper alloy, embraced the Germanic animal style of decoration in the Middle Ages. This decorative style originated in Denmark in the late 5th century as a response to late Roman metalwork. 

Viking craftsmen decorated their brooches in one or more of the Viking styles---Oseberg, Borre, Jellinge, Mammen, Ringerike and Urnes. Viking brooches came in seven different forms---circular, bird-shaped, oval, equal-armed, trefoil, lozenge-shaped, and domed disc. Designs featured a variety of decoration, including interlaced gripping beasts, single animal motifs, ribbon-shaped animals, knot and ring-chain patterns, tendrils, and leaf, beast and bird motifs.

Both men and women wore brooches during the late medieval period from 1300 to 1500. Brooches were star-shaped, pentagonal, lobed, wheel, heart-shaped, and ring.  Smaller than other brooches, ring brooches often fastened clothing at the neck. Brooch decoration usually consisted of a simple inscription or gems applied to a gold or silver base. Inscriptions of love, friendship and faith were a typical of ring brooches of this time. Heart-shaped brooches were a popular gift between lovers or friends.

The Renaissance, lasting from 1300 to 1600, was a time of wealth and opulence in the Mediterranean region. Elaborate brooches covered in emeralds, diamonds, rubies, amethyst and topaz or pearls were in fashion, especially with the upper classes.  Brooches with religious motifs and enameled miniature portraits were also popular.

By the beginning of the 18th century ornate brooches made of gold and silver with complex designs were fashionable. By the mid- to late 1700s, simpler forms and designs were more common, with simpler themes of nature, bows, miniature portraits and animals.  

Brooches made during the Neoclassical Period, between 1760 and 1830, featured  classical themes of ancient Greece and Rome. The main difference between Renaissance brooches and Neoclassical jones were that artisans created Renaissance brooches primarily for the upper class and Neoclassical ones for the general public. 

English pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood produced cameo brooches in black basalt and jasper. Cameos and brooches with classical scenes were fashionable during this period.

Cameos, locket brooches, flowers, nature, animal and hearts were popular in the early Victorian era. When Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861, brooch design changed to reflect the queen in mourning. Styles turned heavier and more somber, using materials like black enamel, jet, and black onyx.

It was fashionable during this period to incorporate hair and portraiture into a brooch. The practice began as an expression of mourning, then expanded to keepsakes of loved ones who were living. Artisans encased human hair encased within a brooch or braided and wove it into a band to which they attached clasps.

By the early 20th century, brooches appeared with diamonds, typically with platinum or white gold, and colored gemstones or pearls. Popular brooch forms included bows, ribbons, swags, and garlands, all in the delicate new style.

The Art Deco style found a place in modern brooch design. Common decoration included geometric shapes, abstract designs, designs from Cubism, Fauvism, and art motifs from Egypt and India. Artisans used black onyx, coral, quartz, lapis and carnelian along with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Return to Toyland" in the 2024 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

A Place to Hang a Pocket Watch for the Night

 

QUESTION: Recently, while browsing a local antique show, I came across a dealer with a display of oddly looking little pieces. They didn’t seem to have any function and each had a large hole or cavity, so I asked her what they were. She said they were pocket watch holders. I had never seen anything like them before since pocket watches went out of style in the mid 20th century. Why would a person need a pocket watch holder? Wouldn’t they just place their pocket watch on a chest top or nightstand at the end of the day? What can you tell me about these curious little items?

ANSWER: During the 19th Century people used pocket watch holders, often referred to as a watch hutches, to hang their pocket watches in overnight to protect them from loss or damage—it’s better for the watch mechanism if it hangs vertically rather than lying flat. These watch holders also converted any pocket watch into small table or mantel clocks in a room that didn't contain a clock. They also made perfect bedside clocks, before the advent of alarm clocks.

During the second half of the 19th Century, cast iron was the most common material for making pocket watch holders. Artisans covered these unsightly cast pieces with gilded bronze to simulate gold. Artisans sculpted the original designs to represent forms in nature, such as vines and leaves or figural representations of country life. Mounted on a marble base and standing between 7 and 8 inches tall, they were quite heavy.

Each holder featured either a round frame with a metal pocket in which to place the watch, or a metal hook from which to hang it. Fanciful designs often featured Baroque cherubs.

Craftsmen cast less expensive versions in spelter, a heavy zinc and lead alloy, over which they applied a bronze wash or brightly colored paint. They sculpted the originals of animals or single figurines. One example shows a peasant girl carrying a garland wreath. Another depicts a young girl in a sheer, swirling dress which swirls in front to form a tray for cufflinks, watch chain, or coins. Still another example, depicts a parrot either about to land on or take off from a branch and painted a bright chartreuse and red.

The French called them porte montre, meaning “watch stand.” Parisian artisans fashioned ornate watch holders for wealthy travelers visiting Paris on the Grand Tour. Pocket watches were a necessity during this era and fine shops along the Palais Royal specialized in selling unusual and whimsical accessories to hold pocket watches at the end of the day.

These holders came in a variety of decorative styles, from Neoclassical to Regency and on to the opulence of Napoleon III. After the 1860s, watch holder makers explored the styles of the day, such as Rococo Revival and Renaissance Revival. As the 20th century dawned, artisans created holders in the styles of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts—and by the mid-1920s, Art Deco.

Parisian artisans created some of the most elaborate pocket watch holders. Resembling a larger version of the famed Limoge porcelain box, these became known as a casque porte montre, or pocket watch casket.

By the late 19th century watch holders could be found in a vast variety of shapes and forms. Champlevé, an enameling technique in which craftsmen carved, etched, die struck, or cast troughs into the surface of a metal object, then filled these troughs with vitreous enamel. was especially popular. After the initial preparation, they then fired the piece until the enamel fused, and when cooled, polished the surface of the object. The uncarved portions of the original surface remained visible as a frame for the enamel designs. The name, champlevé comes from the French for "raised field," or background, though the technique in practice lowers the area to be enameled rather than raising the rest of the surface.

Developed in the late 19th Century, these little gems usually often featured a beveled glass box mounted on sculpted brass legs. While some had an eglomise, or back painted view of Paris, most were clear glass.

One fine example is a French cristal d' opale rose “hortensia” or “gorge de pigeon,” hand embellished with raised enamel flowers and gilt accents. The rich iridescent pink “hortensia” opaline glass is beautifully supported by delicate ormolu mounts.

One of the more unusual examples of a watch holder originated during the gilded age of Napoleon III. Made in the form of a soldier's helmet which sits on a white marble base, its hand cut gilded brass is meticulously tooled to form the front and back of the hat. The crown of the helmet is of white opaline, with a gilded brass finial. It has a hand tooled gilded mount at the bottom. The helmet top opens to reveal a pocket watch holder mounted with a gilded brass frame. A "U" shaped hook at the top holds the watch while the interior, lined with red velvet, is typical of this opulent period.

Pocket watch holder makers also produced dramatic designs drawn from Nature. On one example, an eagle with its wings outspread and perched on a festoon of arrows and laurel leaves, holds an elongated hook. The top of the piece has a very large cartouche made of two curved cornucopia and a central swan, with neck curved downward, perched on a fleur de lis. A half-moon festoon of laurel leaves flow from one cornucopia to the other.

Also originating in Paris is cast bronze watch holder, designed by 19th-century French artist, Emile Joseph Cartier, featuring a little bird alighting atop a cascading vine of leaves which spill onto the base of the bottom mount. The detail of the little bird—its feathers, sweet expression, and outstretched wings give him a very lifelike appearance. In his beak he holds a curved stick onto which to hang a watch. A half-egg shape bowl, ornamented with leaves and berries, which could hold coins or other jewelry items, rests below him.

Yet another, made of bronze/metal, features painted detailing to give the effect of fine porcelain. The chubby little body of a cherub with his hands outstretched stands on a cradle made from an egg. He has delicate wings and wears a quiver around his waist, as well as delicate detailing to his fingers and toes and the feathers of his wings. His bow serves as the support for the pocket watch, which hangs within the sculpture design.

Specifically designed and carved as souvenirs are a group of pocket watch holders from towns in the 19th-century "Black Forest" area of Switzerland, Germany, parts of France and Italy, where they pleased travelers on the Grand Tour. These hand carved treasures range from whimsical small bears to large watch holders and wall plaques showing the most realistic anatomical studies of stag, fowl, and "fruits of the hunt."

One of the most important French artists of the 1920s, Maurice Frecourt, known for his animal sculptures, produced watch holders in the sleek style of Art Deco. After the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925, designers embraced the geometric style of Art Deco. One of his watch holders features a stylized bird standing at the edge of a bowl with its wings up and touching and mounted on a black and green veined piece of octagonal marble. He engraved this piece with detailed feathers both in front and in the back.

Some pocket watch holders imitated other clock cases, only in miniature. Each evening the pocket watch owner placed his watch into the hole where the clock face would be.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Return to Toyland" in the 2024 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Rock Around the Jukebox

QUESTION: My husband recently purchased an old jukebox for a game room we created in our basement.  It’s a Wurlitzer 1015, and considering it’s 68 years old, it still plays pretty well. He paid $3,500 for it. Can you tell me more about this machine and others like it? Did my husband get taken on this deal?

ANSWER: While the jukebox is more or less a thing of the past, a few still exist in arcades and road houses off the beaten path and in the private collections of people who yearn for a return to those happy days. The one your husband purchased is the most popular of the oldies but goodies and normally sells for twice that amount.  

A jukebox, for those of you who may not know, is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays selections from self-contained media, at first records, then CDs.. The classic jukebox has buttons with letters and numbers that restaurant, diner, and bar patrons pushed  in combination to choose and play a specific selection at first for a 10 cents, then later 25 cents, 50 cents, and upwards.

The earliest jukebox was called a  a "nickel-in-the-slot phonograph," and it came about in the late 1880s. The state-of-the-art invention, engineered by Louis Glass and William S. Arnold of San Francisco, was a coin-operated machine that was a modification of the phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison. Upon receiving a coin, unlocked the mechanism, allowing the listener to turn a crank which simultaneously wound the spring motor and placed the reproducer's stylus in the starting groove. Frequently exhibitors would equip many of these machines with listening tubes, similar to acoustic headphones, and array them in "phonograph parlors" allowing the patron to select between multiple records, each played on its own machine. Some machines even contained carousels and other mechanisms for playing multiple records. Most machines were capable of holding only one musical selection, the automation coming from the ability to play that one selection at will. The first of these music players was put at the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco on November 23, 1889. 

The jukebox continued to evolve. Hobart C. Niblack invented a way for the machine to automatically change records in 1918. This led the Automated Musical Instrument Company (AMI) to produce an innovative type of jukebox. Initially playing music recorded on wax cylinders, the shellac 78 rpm record dominated jukeboxes in the early part of the 20th century. 

In 1928, Justus P. Seeburg, who manufactured player pianos, combined an electrostatic loudspeaker with a coin-operated record player and gave the listener a choice of eight records. This Audiophone machine was wide and bulky and had eight separate turntables mounted on a rotating Ferris wheel-like device, allowing patrons to select from eight different records. Later versions of the jukebox included Seeburg's Selectophone, with 10 turntables mounted vertically on a spindle. By maneuvering the tone arm up and down, the customer could select from 10 different records.

Song-popularity counters told the owner of the machine the number of times each record had been played, which allowed the owner to replace less-played songs with more popular ones.

 

The term "jukebox" came into use in the United States around 1940, apparently derived from the familiar usage "juke joint", derived from the word "juke" meaning disorderly, rowdy, or wicked.

Jukeboxes had once been enclosed in wooden cabinets, but by 1937 manufacturers had begun to make them of gaudy plastic, frosted glass, jeweled mirrors, and chrome ornaments. Many of those Art Deco creations were self-contained light shows with polarized revolving disks, bubble tubes, and flashing pilasters. 

In the 1940s, the jukebox started evolving into the version we know today with colorful designs. Manufacturing stopped during World War II, however, as the materials were needed for the war effort. After the war, jukebox manufacturing continued, with the Seeburg Corporation introducing the vinyl record jukebox that used 45 rpm records. 

During those golden years, the Leonardo da Vinci of jukebox design was Wurlitzer's Paul Fuller, who was responsible for 13 full-size machines, five table models, and numerous speakers. The Golden Age of jukebox design ended when he suffered a heart attack in 1944 and died the next year. By then a new generation of larger jukeboxes had appeared, and the classic machines from the golden years—1937 to 1949—were, for the most part, relegated to the junk heap and forgotten. 

 became an important, and profitable, part of any jukebox installation. They enabled restaurant patrons to select tunes from their table or booth. One example is the Seeburg 3W1, introduced in 1949 as companion to the 100-selection Model M100A jukebox. Stereo sound became popular in the early 1960s, and wallboxes of the era came with built-in speakers, enabling patrons to sample this latest technology.

The popularity of jukeboxes extended from the 1940s through the mid-1960s, but they were particularly fashionable in the 1950s. By the middle of the 1940s, three-quarters of the records produced in America went into jukeboxes.

And even with all of today’s high-tech music devices, the sound from one of those old machines was fabulous. Nothing beats hearing an old 78 on a machine created just to play it. Those were the days.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The  Vernacular Style" in the 2024 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Art Deco vs. Art Moderne

 

QUESTION: I’m a great lover of all things Art Deco, although I don’t know much about it. I’ve heard some people refer to this style as Streamlined Modern while other call it Art Moderne. Can you please tell me a little about this style? And what about Streamlined Modern? Is it related to Art Deco?

ANSWER: Art Deco and Art Moderne overlap, both stylistically and chronologically. Both were in vogue in the first half of the 20th century. But it's more a question of style than dates. While Art Deco emphasized verticality and stylized, geometric ornamentation, Art Moderne was a horizontal design, emphasizing movement and sleekness;.

The Art Deco style made its debut at the 1925 World's Fair in Paris—the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes or the International Exhibition of Modern and Industrial Decorative Arts—but the term Art Deco wasn’t used until 1966. A group of French architects and interior designers, who banded together to form the Societe des Artistes Decorateurs, developed the style to incorporate elements of style from diverse modern artworks and current fashion trends. Influence from Cubism and Surrealism, Egyptian and African folk art can be seen in the lines and embellishments, and Asian influences contribute symbolism, grace and detail.

Art Deco was already an internationally mature style by 1925—one that had flourished in the years following World War I and peaked at the time of the fair. The enormous commercial success of Art Deco ensured that designers and manufacturers throughout Europe continued to promote this style until well into the 1930s. 

Sometimes Deco designers applied ornamentation to the surface of an object, like a decorative skin, but at other times the utilitarian designs of bowls, plates, vases, and furniture were themselves purely ornamental. These objects weren’t intended for practical use but rather created for their decorative value alone, exploiting the beauty of form or material. Among the most popular and recurring motifs were the human figure, animals, flowers, and plants. Abstract geometric decoration was also common. 

Victorians loved to apply ornamentation onto furniture, to embellish basic frames and shapes. With Art Deco, the texture and embellishment came from contrasts in a variety of colored woods and inlays or in the material itself. Designers often used burled or birds-eye or visibly grained woods, tortoise shell, ivory, tooled leathers. Lacquered glosses accentuated color differences. Animal skins and patterned fabrics in bright colors were also popular as upholstery.

Though it spread to other countries, Art Deco was a distinctively French response to the postwar demand for luxurious objects and fine craftsmanship. French designers utilized lavish materials and such rich, traditional decorative techniques as inlay and veneer on streamlined geometric forms.

Art Deco reflected the general optimism and carefree mood that swept Europe and the United States following World War I. Hope and prosperity are represented in sunburst designs, chevrons and references to the good life in the elegant figures depicted in casual, sensual poses, often dancing or sipping cocktails. The modern influences heralded a bright and shining future outlook that found its way to architecture, jewelry, automobile design and even extended to ordinary things such as refrigerators and trash cans.

Exoticism also played a role in Art Deco. During the 1920s and 1930s, the French government encouraged designers to take advantage of resources—like raw materials and a skilled workforce—that could be imported from the nation's colonies in Asia and Africa. The resulting growth of interest in the arts of colonial countries in Asia and Africa led French designers to explore new materials, such as ivory, sharkskin, and exotic woods, techniques such as lacquering and ceramic glazes, and forms that evoked faraway places and cultures. 

Art Moderne
 Moderne, also called Streamlined Modern, was an American invention that first appeared in the 1930s and lasted into the 1940s. Although taking its design concepts from Art Deco, it was a completely different style It was bigger and bolder. While Art Deco placed an emphasis on shape, Art Moderne was streamlined. Unfortunately, this is the style most Americans confuse with Art Deco.

Think of Art Moderne as Art Deco on steroids. Moderne was positively streamlined—at the time a new scientific theory that shaping objects along curving lines to cut wind resistance would make them move more efficiently. The furniture in this style was much more pared down, making its outline more geometric in sleek curves like a tear drop or torpedo. Moderne designers often conceived pieces as a series of escalating levels- similar to a staircase or the setback effect of skyscrapers that were rising in every city.

While rich colors, bold geometry, and decadent detail work characterized Art Deco, evoking glamour, luxury, and order with symmetrical designs in exuberant shapes, Art Moderne was essentially a machine-made style focused on mass production, functional efficiency, and a more abstract look coming from the Bauhaus in Germany.

Much of it was designed to be mass-produced, but even if it wasn't, it looked as if it could be: Art Deco's balance and proportion extended to regularity and repetition. Much of the decorative interest in a Moderne piece comes from the precision of line and duplication of functional features. Art Moderne designs often conveyed a sense of motion.

Art Moderne designers favored simpler, aerodynamic lines and forms in the modeling of ships, airplanes, and automobiles. In the modern machine age smooth surfaces, curved corners, and an emphasis on horizontal lines came into fashion. Streamlining appeared on everyday objects and buildings such as roadside diners, motor hotels, movie theaters, early strip malls and shopping centers, seaside marinas, and air and bus terminals. Trains, ocean liners, airplane fuselages, as well as luxury automobiles all sported the Moderne look.

People often refer to furnishings and buildings from the 1920s through the 1940s as Art Deco. Understanding the difference between Art Deco and Art Moderne isn't always easy, especially since Art Deco was originally called Moderne.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Age of Photography" in the 2023 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.